In article ,
Guy Alcala writes:
John Carrier wrote:

The A-7's empty weight was a bit over 20K IIRC, certainly not 15 (even in
the A-7A version ... the E was much heavier). The A-7 never lifted its
empty weight in stores. That would have taken it well over max gross.

Dorr's book lists the A-7A @ 15,037 lb. empty, MTOW 32,500 lb. A-7D is listed
at 19,781 lb. empty, 42,000 lb. MTOW, essentially agreeing with Tom's data from
Jane's. Typical bombload during Vietnam for Navy A-7s was about 6,000 lb.,
although during DS they tended to operate with only 4,000 lb. such as 4 x Mk.
83 1,000 lb. bombs (plus an AIM-9 or two), as they'd removed two pylons to
decrease the drag. USAF A-7Ds tended to operate with 4-6,000 lb. in Vietnam,
plus two tanks and a pod or two if going into a high-threat area. Navy a-87s
in Vietnam tended not to carry tanks (they were closer to the targets) unless
they were acting as buddy tankers, and they had internal ECM so didn't need to
take up a pylon or two with that.

From the A-7D SAC Chart, Oct 1970:
Empty Weight: 19,733#
Basic Weight: 20,331#
Max Takeoff: 42,000#

Note that: Full internal fuel is 9263#,
Full External fuel is 7848# (4 300 U.S. Gallon cans)
While the weapons loadout charts aren't included, the loads for teh
example missions indicate that each wing pylon was good fpr
2000#. The performace section shows a typical load of 2 M117 750#
(nominal, actual weight was a hair over 800#) each on 4
pylons, or 2 pylons of bombs and 2 tanks.

The '79 Jane's lists lists teh pylon ratings as 3500# each for the
wing outboars, and 2500# each for the 2 pairs of wing inboars, for a
total of 15,000#. Given the SLUF's lack of Excess Power, I doubt that
a load of that size was ever considered.


--
Pete Stickney
A strong conviction that something must be done is the parent of many
bad measures. -- Daniel Webster